Synthesizing the legacy of a musician or band has always been one of the recording industry's most glaring failures. How to compress the greatness of that artist into a publication? “Best of” has often been misunderstood as “greatest hits”, but even when the genuine intention of selecting the best has been put on the table, very rarely has a satisfactory result been achieved. Furthermore, it has often been difficult to find a quantitative balance, going from sparse compilations guilty of glaring omissions to selections that are all too abundant and dispersive (and in recent times, to the total lack of filters, with the so-called reissues super deluxe). The birth, in the digital age, of more or less official playlists has not only not helped, but has probably made the situation worse.
Certainly, with the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson this balance has not yet been found, so much so that theirs legacy is the subject of discontent among enthusiasts: despite recent attempts, there are no compilations, best of or box sets with excellent synthesis ability, and certain labels on their music seem indelible. In particular, Brian Wilson's music suffers from misunderstanding, especially in Italy, a country where he has historically struggled to find the consideration of other pop giants.
This playlist is an attempt to do justice to the complexity of Wilson's career: with the exception of the nineties, a period in which he failed to release anything relevant (“Orange Crate Art” is in fact a Parks record), all decades have been taken into consideration; there are acclaimed masterpieces, but others unknown (“Winter Symphony” is perhaps the most striking example); the widest possible spectrum of his musical souls was taken into consideration, from the “easiest” to the most “experimental” (speaking of labels). The same one tracklist it was structured not in chronological order, but rather following a path, which reaches in the final stages the most melancholic and emotionally heartbreaking moments of the musician and the person Brian Wilson.
Like all attempts, this playlist is far from definitive. The absences, some obvious, others more hidden, are there: there are not many early hits, “guilty” of fueling the aforementioned labels and in any case incapable of bearing comparison with the pieces of maturity; there are no rays of light that would have deserved inclusion as much as the pieces present here (one above all, “The Warmth Of The Sun”); there is no “Love & Mercy”, the most famous piece of his solo career; there is no “Darlin'”, to which I have always preferred the original version “Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby”, sung by Sharon Marie (but not present in streaming) and not even “Do It Again”; of his two greatest works, “Pet Sounds” and “SMiLE”, extraordinary pawns were discarded.
The defects, in essence, are far from few, but they highlight an obvious fact: it is literally impossible to close Brian Wilson in 50 songs. All things considered, this playlist can be defined as a compromise, a possible starting point for those who want to start exploring Wilson's music beyond the stereotypes and easy narratives that have been repeated for decades, including that of a cursed genius.
Before closing, some clarifications:
– sometimes the choices were dictated by the limitations of the streaming catalogue: an example above all, “Still I Dream Of It” is not currently available on the platforms, except in the demo version of the album “I Just Wasn't Made For These Times”. The limits are even greater if we consider the amount of recordings that have not yet found an official publication;
– all the pieces conceived for the “SMiLE” project were included in the “Sessions” version, with the partial exception of “Surf's Up”, here present in the sublime voice and piano version from 1967 (however unpublished before 2011);
– the pieces up to and including “Pet Sounds” have been included in the mono version, as originally intended by Wilson. “In The Back Of My Mind” is an exception, in stereo to allow the complexity of the instrumental coda to be better captured;
– only pieces of which Wilson was the main author were taken into consideration. A partial exception is “Sail On, Sailor”, whose authorship has never been fully defined.
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
